Struggling with some hop and not sure what adjustments to be making going forward. Not sure if I need to calm down the hands or what is making the kart hop so much.
Chassis Redspeed RX RR
Engine LO206
Tires Mojo D2 11.5 front psi 13.5 rear
Wheels MXC
Toe out 2mm
Front width 2 skinny spacer can’t remember the width 10mm?
Stock eccentrics with one click of negative on top. Arrow forward on bottom.
Rear width 1400
3rd bearing loose
H axle 1030mm
Two struts left side of seat
One adjustable strut right side.
Rough guess of weight placement, not properly scaled.
T11VG seat
6ft 140lbs.
Any other setup stuff I’m missing that’s crucial let me know. scratching my head here a little. Ran a good day today but missing a couple tenths and I’m trying to calm the kart down.
Just seems like a good amount of mid corner hop but not far off at all on lap times. Can manage in the races but need some more to be aggressive with my moves. Felt like I had a touch of understeer but I was getting pushed into a lot of corners
Take the seat struts off. Shouldn’t need all that stiffness and weight transfer in a 206. Especially at your height. I’d put $20 on that fixing your issue.
Working with a few taller drivers in the past few years, we’ve found that taking the struts off really calms the kart down and doesn’t really hurt the inside rear lift because the driver can just lean all that upper body weight over to work the chassis harder.
The struts make it very stiff and on-edge and hard to drive consistently. I have had a few drivers do it and say it was night and day difference from one session to the next.
Now if you’re shorter you may need struts to get that weight transfer.
Appreciate the advice TJ. Was really looking for something this weekend. And after I got crashed out in the pre final I decided to Hail Mary and take them all off! Sure was fast
Yeah it felt like a big step in the right direction. The session prior I took one strut off the left side and felt a little better. After I got caught up in a wreck I decided to just take them all off like TJ said. Felt amazing and ran my fastest all day picked up the 2 tenths I was looking for. Only was able to reproduce rear hop when I absolutely overdrove the entry and asked the kart to do way too much.
Like Chase, I too removed my seat struts at Pitt today. I was a bit nervous in doing so because I had another weld crack on on the seat supports Wednesday and had to get the chassis repaired Friday.
By no means am I tall (5’9”), but being heavier up top and therefore the CoG being higher corner to corner, it seemed to make a big difference keeping the rear from bouncing. I lost that feeling that I thought was “rolling over” and was using higher tire pressures to compensate. Was able to run pressure much more consistent with where I would expect the SH2s to be at 360lbs at Pitt.
I was around 0.6-1.0 seconds off the top 2 KA drivers all day, but realized on the way home that the final was my 13th heat cycle on the SH2s whichhhh is likely not ideal. Learned a ton today though, including that I am fairly out of shape to be racing 16 year olds in 90 degree heat.
Friday was insane, saturday brutal, and sunday a bit more manageable. I had a moment where I felt like the Serf in James meme doubled over catching his breath. Unlike you I was able to selectively choose when to get in kart, rest of the time was spent running around a hot track pushing the clients off the kerbing etc.
I was actually concerned after one heat because my heart was telling me “stop”. Having spent enough time racing, I listened and was very selective about when to drive.
Today I went through 8 large bottles of electolyte drinks and barely peed, and when I did it was de minimis. Heat was no joke so I feel ya.
Fair warning, I tried the no-strut OTK path last year on the old MG tires looking for a different setup. It worked pretty well, but quickly led to breaking seat mount welds. I think the forces of KA and our…heavier…stature just were too much for it.
Thanks, Chris. That is what made me nervous to do so in the first place. Will take some additional testing to figure out how to alternatively get the kart in that window. I do think this issue is specific to Pitt, given the rhino patches, and is not necessarily an issue at the New Castle, MCC, Trackhouse, etc’s of the world.
You could try spacing the additional stays with rubber washers to help with this. Handling wise it probably wont be quite the same as removing the stays, but it might give just enough support to prevent the chassis seat bracket cracking.
Applies to KA too. Though OTK guys are more 50/50 on additional struts in KA, your kid shouldn’t need them. I did this with Emerson Reed a couple years ago in KA and he said it was miles better with them off. He’s also tall and skinny.
